


Goodnight, Sweet Prince

by Kokochan



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Keith needs taking care of, Kidge - Freeform, Post Season 2, Slight mention of Team-Relationship, There isn't enough Kidge in the world, sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 11:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11312034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kokochan/pseuds/Kokochan
Summary: "He was doing it again.And the fact that she was awake to know that meant she was doing it again."Late one night, Pidge helps a badly stressed and exhausted Keith get ready for bed.





	Goodnight, Sweet Prince

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aurumdalseni (kyo_chan)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyo_chan/gifts).



> This was a gift for aurumdalseni (kyo_chan) to make her feel better after a truly hellish day. She asked for Kidge sweetness, and I did my best to deliver.

He was doing it again.

And the fact that she was awake to know that meant _she_ was doing it again.

Pidge groaned softly in exasperation and looked up from the screen of her laptop, having to blink a few times to readjust to the real world. How long had she been sitting there in the hall, trying to find any trace of Shiro or her family? Too long, if the footsteps she could hear from somewhere in the shadows were any indication.

Keith only prowled like this in the absolute dead of night, after all.

Pidge muttered a soft curse to herself. It was stupid, really. They were both being stupid. Running themselves ragged in their own ways, trying to deal with Shiro's disappearance, a war that felt endless, and a Galra prince who they knew next to nothing about beyond what they could glean from hacked news channels. Pidge was pretty sure she hadn't gone more than two feet away from her computer in over a week, and couldn't remember exactly when her last meal was. Or—she sniffed at herself and grimaced—the last time she showered. Ew.

Keith had it worse. Black had accepted him as her new Paladin, so he was trying to adjust to not only the disappearance of the one man he had considered family, but also the pressures of leadership and adjusting to a new Lion. Considering how closely he had bonded to Red, Pidge doubted that was anything like comfortable. Keith wasn't taking the changes well, having taken to training long hours and barely speaking to anyone. And after that, he'd just wander the halls, as silent and unsleeping as a ghost.

Keith Kogane, Galra Ghost of Grand Gloomy Gothness.

Oh gods, she needed sleep. It was always a bad sign when she started making stupid alliterations. She could practically  _feel_ Shiro's Disapproving Dad Look of Doom.

...Yeah, definitely sleep time. And if  _she_ was going to give in, then by all that was technological and sparkly, so was Keith. Friends didn't let friends emo themselves into exhaustion.

The Green Paladin shut her laptop and tucked it under her arm and stood up, grimacing a little at how stiff she felt from having sat in one position for at least eight hours, and took off down the hall towards the sound of footsteps. It was only a few moments before he came into view, walking slowly and aimlessly, shoulders hunched and expression pensive. He was paler than usual, with dark rings under his eyes that were growing darker by the day. His dark hair was matted down with sweat, which meant he hadn't left the training room all that long ago, and Pidge couldn't help but glance at the way some of the dark strands stuck to his neck. He looked like hell, but somehow he gave that hell a fragile sort of beauty.

Then she mentally swatted herself. Intervention now, shameless ogling later. After sleep.

With that in mind, she didn't hesitate to walk up and grab one of his wrists, pulling Keith down the hall towards the showers. She didn't speak, and neither did he. The fact that he didn't react to her sudden commandeering of his arm beyond a startled flash of violet eyes told her just how close to collapsing he actually was.

“Come on, Keith. We both need to take a break.” she murmured, keeping her voice low. He had that pinched look on his brow that suggested a stress headache on top of everything else.

After that, Pidge did her best to herd Keith through the motions of getting ready for bed as efficiently as possible, though she refrained from speaking out of respect for that possible migraine. When it was just the two of them, they had a pattern, and they'd worked it out long enough ago that it needed minimal prodding or speech on either side. She steered them towards Keith's room, since he was always more comfortable in what he considered 'his' space, and once there, nudged him towards the adjoined bathroom with a pointed look. He grumbled something incomprehensible, but went without anything more than that token protest, pausing only to grab the pajamas that Lance had made for him a few months back.

Everyone pretended they didn't know Keith treasured those. The fact that Keith was shy about gifts was one of the most adorable and worst kept secrets in the castle. 

Pidge put her laptop down in a corner where it wouldn't be stepped on and settled against the wall, dozing lightly while listening to the sound of running water. Some nights, when they needed the companionship and the closeness, they would share the shower, finding enjoyment in each other and this undefined closeness that had grown between them and the other Paladins. Tonight, however, they were both too tired and too emotionally raw. So she waited, and took her turn only after Keith stepped out of the bathroom, washing herself as quickly as she could. The hot water was wonderful, but Keith's bed and Keith's snuggles were singing a full opera's worth of siren songs right now. So she washed and dried herself as efficiently as possible, then grabbed the nightgown stored in the tiny cubby just to the left of the sink, pulling it on. Lance had made her a set of pajamas before he'd known her real gender, and she kept those in her own room to be used on the rare occasions where she remembered to sleep outside the computer lab. When he'd made the nightgown a week after she'd officially revealed her secret to the team, she'd given him a snarky comment and they'd both said nothing about the fact that she'd been smiling.

The fact that Pidge had to cover her own embarrassed pleasure for gifts with sass was the second worst kept secret in the castle.

Keith was waiting for her when she left the bathroom, sitting cross-legged on the bed with a hairbrush held loosely in one hand, an unspoken request and the next step in their bedtime process. Pidge took the brush without a word and crawled onto the mattress, settling herself behind Keith and reaching up to touch his still-damp hair, then paused as she thought of a better idea. So she tugged on his arm instead.

“Lay down,” she whispered when he looked at her in confusion, “You're exhausted, and this will be more comfortable.” She smiled when he granted her request, curling up on his side with his head in her lap. It was a show of trust that warmed Pidge's heart each time he made it, and she set to work on gently working the knots out of midnight hair with the brush and careful fingers. This moment of quiet intimacy was purely theirs, something that Keith allowed no one else to do. A small space in time just before sleep where he would allow himself to be taken care of, the tension in his shoulders slowly draining away with each stroke of the brush and each caress of her hands.

Tonight, she added something new. Because he needed it. Because she wanted to give it.

“Once upon a time,” she murmured, calling up the words she had read over and over until she was sure she had them properly memorized, “on the planet of Galrazi, there was a humble weaver who fell in love with a great sorceress.”

She had spent weeks hunting down and memorizing the books of Galran fairy tales in the castle library, wanting to give Keith something from his non-human heritage that he could enjoy instead of worry about. And from the way his amethyst eyes went from shocked to awed, and then from awed to sleepy contentment, she knew she'd succeeded. So she told him the tale even after his hair was brushed smooth and sleek as silk, stroking the dark strands as she spoke, and only stopped when he finally fell into a deep sleep.

She followed him into dreams not long after, curled around him and kept warm by their shared body heat.

 


End file.
